There has been plenty of debate around Novak Djokovic\u2019s decision not to play a warm-up event ahead of Wimbledon and now it has emerged the 24-time Grand Slam champion has lined up an intriguing practice partner at the All England Club.<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s decision to pull out of the Hurlingham exhibition event in London sparked some concerns over the fitness of the seven-time Wimbledon champion, who has not played a competitive match since he lost against Joao Fonseca in a thrilling match in the opening week of the French Open at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n
His decision not to play a warm-up event should not be viewed as a surprise, as Djokovic has rarely played a pre-Wimbledon grass court event over the course of his career.<\/p>\n
Yet his move to skip the exhibition left some questions over whether he was still nursing the injury he spoke about before and after his defeat against Fonseca in Paris.<\/p>\n
Now it has emerged that Djokovic will be on court in what should be a highly competitive practice session, as he will be hitting with defending Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner at the All England Club on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Is Wimbledon Novak Djokovic\u2019s last chance to win a 25th Grand Slam? John Lloyd gives his verdict<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic snubbed as Taylor Fritz makes Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer claim<\/a><\/p>\n Djokovic and Sinner will take to the court after world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and her top 10 rival Jessica Pegula practice together on the second biggest court at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n At the age of 39, Djokovic would need to defy the sands of time to win what would be a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title, but former British No.1 Greg Rusedski has talked up his hopes of creating more tennis history.<\/p>\n While Rusedski suggests Sinner is the big favourite to retain his Wimbledon title, he believes Djokovic is a huge contender.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s my second pick for the title,\u201d declared Rusedski, in an exclusive extract from his latest podcast on Tennis365.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe compare him to Serena Williams because he\u2019s been playing all year and he\u2019s still a full-time professional. Let\u2019s not forget he beat Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open in January. Nobody thought he was going to win that match.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then against Alcaraz, he got off to a brilliant start in the final, but then Alcaraz just put the accelerator on.<\/p>\n \u201cNow he\u2019s only got to be one of the big two. With Alcaraz out, Djokovic has to think this is my best chance to win number 25.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd if Djokovic gets to 25, it\u2019s almost as impressive as (Rafael) Nadal\u2019s 14 Roland Garros titles. A number that has never been hit before. I mean, that would be truly remarkable.<\/p>\n \u201cNovak on grass, he doesn\u2019t need warm-ups. He got enough tennis in Paris. He\u2019s playing well enough. And for me, he might even be joint favorite because of the heat that we know can affect Sinner.<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cDjokovic is definitely one of the best grass court players on the planet. Seven Wimbledon titles, trying to tie Roger Federal with eight. Don\u2019t discount Djokovic.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic has been in London for a few days training in the heat ahead of his latest Wimbledon challenge and it might just be his last if he crashes out of the tournament early.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Watching Jannik Sinner\u2019s Wimbledon warmup match on UK\u2019s hottest day ever \u2013 here\u2019s what happened<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic picks intriguing practice partner for key Wimbledon warm-up<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There has been plenty of debate around Novak Djokovic\u2019s decision not to play a warm-up event ahead of Wimbledon and now it has emerged the 24-time Grand Slam champion has lined up an intriguing practice partner at the All England Club. Djokovic\u2019s decision to pull out of the Hurlingham exhibition event in London sparked some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}